Twin

I think thats the best way to assess whether or not its a safe option. For some people, even just watching a video game trailer is enough for them to reinstall steam games and binge. For others, they are a bit more resilient to triggers. I never played these kind of games personally but it sounds like something you need others for, which is a barrier of entry to getting addicted or playing too much. You can't be into your 12th hour of the session at 3 am if you need other human beings to play. I say continue it if you enjoy it, and if you find yourself feeling tempted for more variety aka video games or mobile games, take the proper precautions. If its causing problems, it is a problem. If not, then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Currently reading Limitless by Jim Kwik, its a book about learning more effectively and improving productivity when it comes to self education. Last book I read in full though was How to be an imperfectionist by Stephen Guise, not counting the respawn ebook that led me to this forum in the first place.

I live in nyc, the most expensive borough at that. I'm definitely more focused on the 90 days and generally making sure gaming isn't a problem in my life and in my pursuit of web development. As Dr.K from healthygamer says, if it's causing problems it is a problem. Maybe after the 90 days I'll be able to game more moderately, or maybe i'll have no interest. I'm open to whatever I may feel. But considering the release of cyberpunk in the near future I'd be very surprised if I decide to give up gaming forever haha.

I don't know if anyone else has really emphasized this, didn't read every response. But I think you would also benefit from not being so hard on yourself. School is hard, quitting video games is hard, being honest with tough parents is hard. You've been facing a lot of stuff head on, and in the dark because you feel you can't really reach out to anyone for support. Chances are your group of gaming friends don't really understand the problems gaming can cause in ones life, especially if you guys don't talk about real life stuff much. The past is the past homie, you still have a lot in your control, and dropping gaming is the first step to realizing that control. Take it one problem at a time, not saying you can't focus on multiple things at once, sometimes thats actually more helpful and motivating than starting small. But really take it one problem at a time on paper, or notepad on your computer or literally anything, just write it out. Don't try to juggle it inside of your head.

Full disclosure, I'm not sure if I want to quit video games forever. What I do know is that the coding bootcamp I'm in starts up again in two days, and I almost flunked out last time partially because instead of studying for 4 hours a day, i was gaming for probably 8 hours a day or more. Luckily, they gave me a second chance and switched me to the cohort that starts this month. i knew this over a month in advance but unfortunately did not take advantage of the extra study time, instead I just played video games all day. My goal is to land a job as a web developer and make enough money to move out on my own, which is gonna be a lot as I live in an expensive city. I uninstalled all of my video games, mod managers, etc and my goal is to not play video games until this goal is achieved. Its going to be hard to find activities I can do in place of video games but luckily the respawn book does a really great job at structuring what kind of activities you need to replace games. My ps4 is still underneath my desk so I need to put that in my closet, but I already feel a sense of relief and more control over my time.